Sister Giovanna knew nothing of his coming, for she was in the wards, where there was much to be done.

The patients who had fever had been severely affected by the terrible explosion, and most of them were more or less delirious and had to be quieted.

In the windows that look westward every pane of glass was broken, though the outer shutters had been closed at sunset, a few minutes before the catastrophe.

There were heaps of broken glass to be cleared away, and the patients whose beds were now exposed to draughts were moved.

Sister Giovanna, who was not the supervising nurse for the week, worked quietly and efficiently with the others, carrying out all directions as they were given; but her heart misgave her, and when one of the nuns came in and said in a low voice that an officer from Monteverde had been brought in with his arm badly crushed, she steadied herself a moment by the foot of an iron bedstead.